President Faye ends the career of the man who made him plunge a debt-laden West Africa into political uncertainty on the eve of critical IMF negotiations.
IT was the political earthquake that many had seen forming on the horizon but few believed would arrive so suddenly. Late on Friday evening, May 22, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dismissed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the entire government in a single stroke ending an alliance that had defined the country’s politics since 2024 and reshaping the landscape of one of West Africa’s most consequential democracies.
The announcement was delivered on state broadcaster RTS by Oumar Samba Ba, minister and secretary-general of the presidency. “By decree number 2026-1128 of May 22, 2026, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has put an end to the functions of Mr. Ousmane Sonko, Prime Minister, and as a result to those of the ministers and secretaries of state, members of the government,” Ba declared in the televised statement.
The outgoing cabinet has been directed to remain in place strictly to handle day-to-day administrative affairs. No immediate successor to the prime minister was named.
To understand the full weight of Friday’s events, one must trace the arc of a partnership that once seemed indestructible. The two men had long been regarded as inseparable within the Patriotic African Pan-Africanist and Work Party, known by its French acronym PASTEF. Sonko’s political backing was widely credited as the decisive factor in Faye’s rise to the presidency in 2024 a remarkable achievement given that Sonko himself had been barred from contesting the race due to a prior defamation conviction.
After Sonko was disqualified from the 2024 presidential race, he threw his full support behind Faye under the popular slogan “Diomaye mooy Sonko” “Diomaye is Sonko” a phrase that captured the belief that the two men were ideologically inseparable, two expressions of the same political soul.
Tensions between the two leaders had increasingly spilled into public view in recent months. Earlier this month, Faye openly warned that Sonko would remain prime minister only if he carried out his responsibilities properly, after the former premier publicly criticised the president. In March, Sonko had publicly hinted at a possible political rupture, stating that he would be prepared to withdraw PASTEF from government and return to the opposition if the administration drifted away from the party’s founding principles.
At the core of the rupture lies a fundamental disagreement over how to manage Senegal’s deepening debt crisis. The pair have disagreed over the handling of public debt that the International Monetary Fund estimates reached 132 percent of GDP at the end of 2024, after the government said it had discovered undisclosed debts not reported by the previous administration now estimated at around $13 billion. The disclosure prompted the IMF to suspend a $1.8 billion loan facility to the country.
Sonko strongly opposed any restructuring of Senegal’s estimated $13 billion debt burden, accusing international financial actors of pressuring the country toward unfavourable arrangements. President Faye, while aligned with Sonko on several reform themes, had generally adopted a more restrained public posture on the debt crisis and relations with international lenders.
The timing of the dismissal could not be more consequential. Hours before his dismissal on Friday, Finance Minister Cheikh Diba had informed parliament that Senegal expected to resume formal negotiations with the IMF during the week of June 8, with the goal of securing an agreement on structural reforms by June 30. Diba also delivered a stark fiscal warning, noting that the national fuel subsidy bill could overrun its 2026 budget allocation by as much as 1.15 trillion CFA francs roughly $2 billion if global oil prices rise to $115 per barrel. In a particularly revealing detail, Diba explicitly revealed to parliament that Sonko had rejected his formal ministerial request to raise domestic fuel prices to mitigate the deficit a public exposure of Cabinet-level dysfunction that foreshadowed the dramatic events that would follow that same evening.
The dismissed prime minister’s response, when it came, was strikingly composed. Sonko responded calmly from his residence in Dakar. In a brief statement, he said he would “sleep with a light heart,” signalling acceptance of the decision while maintaining dignity.
The calm at the top, however, was not fully replicated on the streets. Supporters of the former prime minister gathered to protest in front of his house in Dakar following his dismissal. Small protests were reported near universities and among youth groups in Dakar. Online reactions among PASTEF loyalists were divided, with some accusing Faye of betrayal and others viewing the move as necessary for stability.
The split comes as Senegal faces mounting economic pressure, with the country grappling with a debt crisis and ongoing talks with the International Monetary Fund. The sudden removal of the prime minister and the entire cabinet threatens to derail the timetables already communicated to parliament for the resumption of those talks.
Political analysts warn that the rift could destabilise the ruling coalition ahead of future elections in 2029 and complicate efforts to secure international financial support. President Faye is expected to name a new prime minister and cabinet in the coming days.
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For a country that swept PASTEF to power on a wave of youth energy, pan-Africanist idealism, and anti-establishment fury, the spectacle of its two defining figures breaking apart less than two years into office carries a particular sting. The slogan was “Diomaye is Sonko.” On Friday night in Dakar, it became clear unmistakably and permanently that he is not.
